Managing Automation - January 2008 - (Page 34) [ INTEGRATION ] Transformation TechWatch Integration Industries maonline managingautomation.com human workflows. So it makes sense to put other technologies in place on top of something like NetWeaver.” Of course, the downside to this approach, vendors acknowledge, is that organizations that use multiple BPM tools will incur higher licensing and training costs. Those higher costs, however, will pay off in the short term, Forrester’s Vollmer says. “The business value of these tools will be much greater than the cost of supporting multiple tools from multiple vendors,” he says. And a decision to use multiple BPM tools doesn’t necessarily carry with it a lack of BPM standards within the enterprise, experts note. Organizations using multiple BPM tools can still enforce a standard methodology for creating, testing, and deploying business processes. Vendors such as IDS Scheer and IBM have published such methodologies. And manufacturers with multiple BPM tools can use a single repository, such as webMethods’ CentraSite, for governing things like who can create and change business models and processes. LIMITED MENU While BPM tools from pure-play BPM vendors target a range of environments and process types, BPM tools from ERP vendors — such as Oracle’s BPA Suite and BPEL Process Manager and SAP’s NetWeaver — tend to focus primarily on allowing developers to build composite applications made up of services provided from within the vendor’s enterprise suite, experts say. Such tools typically aren’t strong in composing document- or human-centric processes, and they often don’t have all the hooks for integrating with legacy or non-native applications. In addition some, such as NetWeaver at this point, lack smooth, two-way communication between process modeling and execution tools, says Ian Finley, a RELATED ARTICLES: Best of Breed: One Size Doesn’t Always Fit All www.managingautomation.com/bestofbreed Conquering Space in the Integrated Enterprise www.managingautomation.com/integration23 Oracle Makes Uninvited Bid for BEA www.managingautomation.com/oraclebea Reaping BPM’s Rewards www.managingautomation.com/notes43 SAP Enhances NetWeaver BPM Capabilities www.managingautomation.com/BPM Technology Advances Push BI to Mainstream www.managingautomation.com/pushBI COMPANIES MENTIONED: BEA www.managingautomation.com/BEA Global 360 www.managingautomation.com/Global360 IBM www.managingautomation.com/IBM IDS Scheer www.managingautomation.com/IDS Oracle www.managingautomation.com/Oracle3 SAP www.managingautomation.com/SAP3 Software AG (webMethods) www.managingautomation.com/ TIBCO www.managingautomation.com/Tibco Ultimus www.managingautomation.com/Ultimus research director at AMR Research. ERP vendors, however, are expected to invest in improving the functionality of their BPM tools. By the middle of this year, for example, SAP plans to introduce a business process modeling tool that supports the Business Process Management Notation standard and will better integrate with the company’s composite application deployment tools, says Harald Nehring, director of solution marketing at SAP. And Oracle has even more aggressive plans to enhance its BPM tools to make them suitable for manufacturers supporting a wide range of application software and business processes, not only Oracle applications. Already, says Amlan Debnath, vice president of server technology at Oracle, 60% of the users of Oracle’s BPA Suite of BPM tools are non-Oracle application users. Although most are focused on transaction-centric business processes, Debnath acknowledges, Oracle plans to broaden the scope of applications its tools can address. For example, the company says it will enable its BPM tools to support document-centric processes by integrating them with document management applications from Stellant, which Oracle acquired in November 2006, Debnath says. IBM also is pushing to extend its BPM tools to support document- and human-centric business processes, as well as those revolving around transactional systems, says Kramer Reeves, manager of BPM product marketing for WebSphere and SOA. The company is expected to integrate the recently acquired FileNet document management applications with its WebSphere BPM tools. And, Reeves says, IBM plans to integrate its Quickr team collaboration software with its WebSphere BPM to help users create business processes that include human-to-human collaboration. All of this means that it may make sense for some manufacturers to wait for BPM suites from large ERP or platform providers, such as IBM or webMethods, to mature rather than licensing tools from multiple vendors today, according to AMR’s Finley. Manufacturers whose business processes function in an ERP environment, such as SAP or Oracle, in particular, can already pull plenty of value out of BPM tools from those vendors. And others that need to support a wider range of applications and process types can expect tools from ERP and other providers to mature fairly quickly. “We see a lot of people waiting for these BPM environments to mature rather than taking a costly multi-vendor approach in the short term,” Finley says. “Things will become a lot easier and a lot more clear a year from now.” s ma January 34 2008 http://managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/bestofbreed http://www.managingautomation.com/integration23 http://www.managingautomation.com/oraclebea http://www.managingautomation.com/notes43 http://www.managingautomation.com/BPM http://www.managingautomation.com/pushBI http://www.managingautomation.com/BEA http://www.managingautomation.com/Global360 http://www.managingautomation.com/IBM http://www.managingautomation.com/IDS http://www.managingautomation.com/Oracle3 http://www.managingautomation.com/SAP3 http://www.managingautomation.com/ http://www.managingautomation.com/Tibco http://www.managingautomation.com/Ultimus
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